Lopez was the second journalist since mid-2021 to be murdered in Salina Cruz, a Pacific port in Oaxaca. According to three security analysts and a DEA source, it is located in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a thin stretch of land connecting the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, which became a landing site for precursor chemicals to make fentanyl and meth Is.
López’s last story, one of many written about Espinosa, covered the politician’s alleged efforts to get a company to build a breakwater in the port of Salina Cruz to allow workers to return to their homes. may be removed from voting for election or otherwise.
The infrastructure was a part of the Interoceanic Corridor—one of López Obrador’s major development projects in southern Mexico.
Jose Ignacio Martinez, a crime reporter in the isthmus, and nine of Lopez’s fellow reporters say that since his murder they are more fearful of publishing stories of the state’s collusion with the Corridor project, drug trafficking and organized crime .
One outlet Reuters spoke to, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said it had conducted an investigation on the corridor but did not feel it safe to publish after Lopez’s death.
A spokesman for López Obrador did not respond to a request for comment about the corruption allegations related to the corridor.
mechanics
In 2012, the government established mechanisms for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists.
Known as the apparatus, the body provides journalists with security such as panic buttons, surveillance equipment, home police watch, armed guards and rehabilitation. CPJ found that nine system-protected journalists have been murdered since 2017.
Journalists and activists may request protection from the Mechanism, which evaluates their case with representatives of human rights defenders, journalists and non-profits, as well as officials from various government agencies who form a governing board. Not everyone who requests protection based on analysis receives it.
There are currently 1,600 people enrolled in the system, including 500 journalists.